Michael J. Hammel is a noted
author with books on The GIMP and GTK+ to his credit, a graphics
artist wannabe and a software developer currently living in Houston
with his wife, Brinda, and daughter Ryann. Most recently, Michael
worked as a senior editor for Linux Weekly
News
(LWN.net).

A little over-dramatic. The industry change to Linux isnt nearly as kinetic as people want to make it sound. Sure - Maya, Shake, XSI, Houdini, etc. work in Linux -but where are the plugins? Where is all the support software we use on a daily basis, namely the Adobe software and countless others.

This article implies that we as an industry had just a slight brush with NT but decided we hated it and moved on. As though everyone started on Irix!

There are NUMEROUS visual effects houses in 'Hollywood' (the industry worldwide) who use NT and Windows 2000 religiously for visual effects because it works, the software is there now, and it's still a hell of alot cheaper than SGI.

Sure - I would prefer Linux, but to get the work done NOW we have to stick to alot of cross-platforming. The studio where I am a technical director uses 50 or so Macs, 20 NT machines for 3D, all Linux for the renderfarm, and all irix for servers / high end compositing (Inferno). This article reminds me of the expose' style article making it sound like a sweeping change. Watching Linux move into the industry from the front lines has been about as much fun as watching grass grow, I can attest.

Also - one correction - this article constantly refers to the "Softimage XSI Compositing Package"

What?

Softimage is 3D software - as old as Alias. XSI 2.0 has integrated some compositing facilities- but it is by no means a compositing package. This is well known by anyone who actually works with this stuff. This simple error makes me worry about the credibility of the article. And did Ray Feeney mention that his company's (Silicon Grail) compositing software - RAYZ has barely ever worked? It's great that someone is developing for Linux natively now and I am happy to hear it, but it has a long way to go. Rayz is a buggy piece of crap 2 versions into it.

In truth the industry has changed very little over the last several years. The big players like Dreamworks, ILM, Pixar, Rhythm and Hues, etc. have the privelege of using vast amounts of proprietary software all written in some flavor of UNIX. If Rhythm and Hues wants to move their animation package to Linux, they just tell the software development department to do so. It makes perfect sense for all of them to switch over - but for the MAJORITY of the industry, that is the rest of us who are not doing Star Wars Episode 2 and the next Pixar film, things are not moving so quickly - because we rely on third party vendors.

Also- did Pixar mention that they render on Sun with Solaris? and that they always have and continue to? They dont even use Linux on the back end - hard to use them as an example of the 'sweeping change'.

Check your sources next time and try to avoid being sensational. Dont hold your breath for things to change overnight.

Linux runs on everything. Linux on SGI means that customers don't have to make an either/or decision in purchasing hardware. The training/support barrier to entry is gone. New markets dominated by Sun in which SGI couldn't compete (due to IRIX being considered a specialty OS) are now open.

SGI briefly promoted and sold Windows, before switching to Linux. Although Linux does ease the migration to other platforms, SGI is better off with Linux than the alternative of everyone going to a Windows. At least Linux runs on their hardware.

Linux leaves the door open for SGI to make a comeback in workstations if they would want to try, and supports their present strategy of focusing on high-end servers in mixed environments.

You can read what SGI says about Linux in my Linux Journal article, "GFX: Mainstream Linux."

AFAIK, is their Hardware+Software that brings in the cash. With Linux, people will not buy new hardware from them. We can just take much *cheaper* X86 system.

This leave with Software portion (OS). Since Linux can install into old/existing SGI machine, why should people upgrade their OS? This also result existing customer not buying new hardware from them (since they can continue to use existing hardware).

In the end, what is left for SGI?

Is my personal opinion that we won't see SGI in the near future. They most likely will become another SCO, bought over by someone.

Well the VFX industry needs to consider what will happen to their nice new platform (linux) if legislation like the SSSCA is passed. For all practical purposes corporate Hollywood is attempting to exterminate open computing platforms, and open source software developement.

Please snail mail your Congressman and Senators today. Microsoft has in the last year, patented core technologies required by the SSSCA. If the SSSCA passes it would require that all bootable devices pay a Microsoft tax.

The big media companies don't seem to realize that the SSSCA, and its ilk, will cost more in lost sales than these "laws" will bring in by reducing "unauthorized" duplication. Nobody with an IQ above room temperature will pay to be Disney's *****: these laws will so alienate the consumer that there will be no market for the products of these large "media" companies. Remember DivX?

The big computer companies had better act NOW to prevent the idiocy of the SSSCA by buying their own politicians and fighting Diznee. What the computer executives don't seem to grasp is that the SSSCA will destroy the computer industry. It is basic economics: if the utility of a product is reduced, consumers will be far less willing to purchase it. If there is no utility to be garnered from purchasing the product, nobody will buy it. Don't let Disney destroy the technology sector of the American economy by legislating the utility out of our products, don't let Disney put you out of business, don't let Disney regulate your right to innovate.

Well, the VFX industry doesn't have anything to do with the SSSCA, they work for the movie industry, like contractor, work for hire, they are not part of the big media corps that push things like the SSSCA.

There is also something to watch out for in this article. Apple just bought Nothing Real about a couple weeks ago. So the future of Shake on Linux is nebulous, seems that Trmor was killed. Also ILM is indeed moving to Linux, not just considering it. They started the move last year, maybe replacing at least one third of the workstations by now and also some of their big origins with a P4 and Alpha solution.

SSSCA would mean the end of American nuclear weapons development as we know it. All the big iron at Los Alamos and most of the T division guys I know run Linux and rely on it's external development. So the MPAA really is a bunch of commie, terrorist dupes.

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